Reading 4 East Grinstead 5
By Reading Hockey Club • Sep 25th, 2012 • Category: M1, Match Reports, NewsSunday 23rd September 2012
This weekend marked the return of Men’s premier league hockey to Sonning lane after the summer break. With East Grinstead as the visitors, Reading knew that it would be a tough test but one that could return a win should the performance match up to the potential.
On a rain sodden pitch, the home side started well and after asserting themselves as the dominant side the ball fell to Darren Cheesman to tidily tuck the ball under the goalkeeper. It was not long before Reading doubled the advantage with Rick Mantell flicking a penalty corner hard and low into the corner. With East Grinstead on the ropes Reading naively released their grip on the game and Mark Pearn snuck into the circle to snatch a crucial goal to take it to 2-1 at the break.
It was this break that seemed to make East Grinstead wake up and completely change the game with a 15 minute burst that saw Piper, Jackson and Rick Gay get goals as well as Legg scoring the first own goal of his career.
At 5-2 down Reading once again turned up the heat with Cheesman lashing home a goal from a tight angle, followed by Mantell getting another penalty corner to increase the tension in the last few minutes. A Penalty corner on the final whistle almost lead to a dramatic equaliser but unfortunately it was not meant to be in a game that brought a lot of goals to keep the dedicated crowd that braved the weather excited.
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